Sonata by A.F. Henley

 At thirty-six Ian feels done with the world. When a night at a bar goes as poorly as expected, he wants only to return home to be miserable in peace. Instead, he encounters Jordan. Hot, young and interested, Jordan is everything Ian's ever wanted and nothing he believes himself capable of actually obtaining.

Jordan has enough going on in his life trying to scrape together a living for himself and his autistic son. When he meets Ian, all he wants is a brief, erotic moment and nothing else.

But fate throws them together again and again, and Ian finds himself determined to do whatever it takes to give their story a happy ending – no matter what secrets Jordan's past has waiting for him.

How many ways can I say I loved Sonata?  The author gave us a touching story on so many levels that it broke my heart while also mended what it broke inside of me.  The characters are so well developed you embrace them and bring them into your heart and learn from them.  The power of forgiveness, love and the power to stand up for your own rights in life are abundant in this book. 

Ian was a middle aged gay man, who spent his time working at the office.  While his associates assumed his life meant nothing since he didn’t have a wife and kids, he was the chosen one to stay late after work, finish the jobs that his bosses didn’t want to do, work on weekends.  His life was nothing more than a means for others to get what they wanted.  One night at a bar he met Jordan/Justin (yes we call him Jordan at the beginning of the story but we soon learn his name is Justin).  What was meant to be a quick sexual event, left Jordan not wanting more but Ian falling for this younger man. 

Knowing that Jordan was half his age and that he was coming off a bad break with the last boyfriend, Ian still couldn’t turn away when fate placed him and Jordan in the same locations.  He saw Jordan at the mall with a young boy and the questions started to swirl as to if Jordan was actually free to have a relationship with Ian, could that be why he discarded Ian so easily and quickly?

As the story progresses we watch Ian become closer to the little boy named Cole who has Asperger’s and we see how Jordan tries to take care of Cole and slowly let the walls down.  Trust was something Jordan didn’t understand and we soon became aware of why that was in a heart breaking scene that left Cole screaming, Jordan/Justin being taken away and Ian fighting for his life on the floor. 

Ian takes the time to recover and realizes that he can’t keep going through life emotionally numb and allowing people to take from his soul.  It is ok to stand up and say I am angry, I am hurt and I deserve the respect that should be given to me.  As he finds his way in life with this new realization he still misses what he had with Justin and he wonders if anyone is taking on the role he started with Cole.  Ian realized that the piano was the thing that connected Cole to life, at the age of 8 this boy could play the piano, he could create music for the world.  Music was the voice that Cole had and he prayed someone would nurture that in him. 

The end of the story was beautiful and I was so happy the author let us see where these characters ended up.  I will let you know there are m/m sexual scenes but they are done with class and respect and you can feel the connection the two men have to each other.  What impressed me more was the life lessons we watched happen with the characters.  I love this book and I would highly recommend it to you readers.